Beach, dog, hamster, santa

Right now its raining, I just got back from a delicious dinner with Katie and Alissa, and Jamie Oliver is on TV teaching me how to cook Asian food. Side note: on the bottom of our bill at the restaurant tonight it said "Foreign Customer: 3". Whyyyyyyy are they counting us?????

So last Friday I saw the new Pirates movie. I thought it was pretty great. And remember the treat Koala Yummies from our childhood? My friend Jackie told me they still make them in Korea, and I found some and brought them as my snack. They aren't shaped like koalas anymore, but they taste the same.

Saturday I went to a foreigner festival. I thought it was for foreigners to hang out with each other, but really it was for Koreans to learn about foreigners. Disappointing. So Katie and I left early, walked around the park, and found some of these

There is exercise equipment all over this country, in places where you are already exercising, like the park, the playground, on walking trails, and on mountains (I haven't actually climbed a mountain yet, but some friends told me). People are ALWAYS using this stuff, and its ALWAYS old men and women. These were unoccupied, so we decided to play.

Sunday I did my favorite thing - went to the beach in Busan :) with Katie, Garrett and Kyla, and one of their friends. We literally sat in the sand and ate and talked. All afternoon. It was perfect. Then Katie and I went to a soccer game - well, the last half of a soccer game. We were way late.

Sometime during the day I saw this dog. This dog represents all dogs in Korea. They are all small, always wearing clothes, usually have hideous haircuts, and sometimes have dyed ears and tails. Seriously. There's this dog that lives by me that's white, it has pink ears, a blue tail, and some sort of multicolored sweater. Poor poor animal.

Tuesday Yu-ri and I had open class. Every teacher has an open class every semester. Parents, teachers, principals, and other important Koreans come and watch you teach and then evaluate you. In our classroom there were 5 parents, the vice principal, 6 Korean teachers - one literally followed me around the room with a camera - and a video camera. Some teachers rehearse with their students before they teach, but Yu-ri and didn't care that much. After the lesson she went to a meeting to talk about it and I taught the next class. She said everyone said good things. I think this was more for her than for me anyways.

Wednesday I got a package from my family, and it had chili seasoning in it. So I made chili in the rice cooker. It was DELICIOUS! Best dinner I've had in weeks.

Today is Thursday, and SO MANY things happened at work. One 6th grade girl spent the whole day hiding behind doors and around corners and popping out and yelling whenever anyone walked past to try and scare them. The only person she actually scared was Sam. Jenny and I got a good laugh out of that. I got love notes shaped like hearts from 2 girls, and they're currently on my frig. Jenny gave me a pack of tarot cards and told me to learn how to use them by Saturday. The city is putting on a big English festival, and I have to work at it and apparantly sit at the tarot card booth. I think I'm just going to make things up. I had to spend part of my day working in a different classroom, and I found a pair of pants and a shirt hanging on a chair. I was scared someone was going to walk in naked or something. And...this is the best. A tragedy in 3rd grade. The class hamster somehow got into the toilet and drowned. A few girls found it, and came to tell their teacher, who happened to be talking to Jenny and I. The 3 of us fought over who was going to fish it out, and eventually we convinced a 4th grade boy to do it. Then at the end of the day Jenny called me into her office and asked if she could take my picture. After I said yes she pulled out a Santa outfit and made me wear it and do different poses. Life is never boring in this country.